Dominic Anarigide, the Deputy Constituency Secretary for the NDC in the Navrongo Constituency has expressed some disquiet about the current inflation rates in the country.
The Upper East Region has recorded the overall second highest inflation for the month of October, 2022. This is according to the Ghana Statistical Service’s Consumer Price Index for October 2022.
The Region recorded an overall inflation rate of 33.6 percent. The North East Region followed closely with an inflation rate of 33.1 percent. The Northern Region was fourth among the 5 regions of the north with an inflation rate of 27.3 percent while the Upper West Region recorded an inflation rate of 27 percent for the month of October.
The region with the highest overall highest inflation rate in northern Ghana was the Savannah Region with a rate of 47.6 percent.
For food inflation, Savannah Region topped with 49.7 percent while the Upper West Region followed with a rate of 44.4 percent. The North East Region came in close third with a rate of 36.6 percent. The Upper East Region and the Northern Region recorded food inflation rates of 34.9 percent and 28.2 percent respectively.
32.9 percent was the inflation rate for the non-food basket for the Upper East Region.
Meanwhile, Ghana’s year-on-year inflation rose to 40.4 per cent in October from 37.2 per cent in September, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has announced.
For Mr. Anarigide, for inflation in Ghana, “I can point out two issues; fuel prices and the depreciation of the cedi. Even the fuel prices have something to do with the depreciation of the cedi. In the first place, most of our goods are imported. Because we are an import-led economy, anytime our cedi depreciates, those who import, they have to go and look for more money to go and buy the same quantity of goods and services even if the prices of the goods on the international market remain the same. So when you come, you are importing inflation into the economy. You are a businessman, you would have a margin and when you have that margin, it means the prices would go up.”
Mr. Anarigide spoke to A1 Radio’s Mark Smith.
The continuous increases in the prices of fuel, save for the reduction in the 2nd pricing window of November 2022, also plays a key role in driving inflation in the country.
“Anytime there’s fuel increase, almost everything increases. Let’s look at production; anything that uses fuel in its production, you will have the prices adjusted,” he said.
Touching on food inflation, Mr. Anarigide explained that the current rates could rise further during the lean season; a concern corroborated by Emmanuel Wullingdool, an Agriculture Policy Consultant.
Even during the present harvest season, agriculture policy consultant Emmanuel Wullingdool is quite concerned about the cost of food and its rate of increase. According to Mr. Wullingdool, if food costs aren’t controlled, during the lean season, they might even grow more exorbitant for the average Ghanaian.
He said this when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper Show today, Wednesday, November 16, 2022.
“This should be what should be of concern to all the players in the sector. This is the peak. This is the harvest period so one would have expected that we should see prices coming down and that we should see food inflation drastically coming down but we still see it at these drastically high levels,” he said.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
Thank you our dear secretary. May the good Lord see you through.